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The 6 billion is over 25 years. That still averages out to $240 million a year. So their TV contract pays for a $200 million plus payroll with a profit. That's before selling one ticket or one beer or hot dog or jersey. There is just no way teams like the Brewers can compete for top free agents.

you forget we use them to get to the playoffs. If it weren't for greinke and Sabathia and Fielder we'd be on a 30 year playoff drought and the other guys were fan favorites as well. If you want to look at a team used for big contracts look at teams like The Pirates and Marlins. Not like we didn't bring Greinke and Sabathia in knowing we'd have very little chance of signing them.

For years fans have been clamoring for baseball to do something similar to football, share the revenue. Everyone is on the same playing level. I don't think it will happen in baseball, the Union wouldn't allow it. That's nothing against the Union, they have to protect the players. The Brewers will never be able to compete for the elite players. They're going to have to draft and develop elite players.

The difference between the NFL and MLB is the pure volume of games. In the NFL there is a maximum of 16 games a week. The NFL owns the right to every game. They can sell the rights to every game and split the proceeds. With between 90 and 105 games per week in MLB I don't see any way to use the same system in baseball.

Actually there is no difference. They are both games played between 2 teams and shown regionally in those markets. Bill Veeck proposed a 50/50 split as far back as 1952. Baseball owners in big markets refused. The NFL had ownership in big markets that understood the financial health of the entire league was only as good as it's weakest members. Two men in particular, Wellington Mara of the Giants, and George Halas of the Bears, put the well being of the league ahead of their teams. I hate the Bears as much as any Packer fan, but it's likely there would be no team in Green Bay without Halas.

A 50/50 split sounds great. But if you're a team capable of getting a TV deal worth over $240 million are you really going to agree to put it into a pot with the teams getting $20-40 million a year and split it 50/50? I wouldn't.

Actually those small market teams do have some leverage. Were they refuse to play the schedule those big market teams would have no product to sell. Unfortunately this would require more forethought than most owners posess

You know when a team spends $200M and another $80M that something has to change. If no change then what happened with Greinke will keep happening. Hard to believe he'll get $800,000 per start. Hard for most teams to compete with that scenario.

For any Brewers fans complaining about baseball's finances and the disparity between large and small markets, ask yourself this question: which one of the contracts would you have wanted the Brewers to sign? Not the Carlos Lee deal (6 / 100). How long did it take before the Astros wanted to unload that contract? I don't want Prince's deal 9/ 214, or Cordero's with the Reds (4 / 46 for a relief pitcher). Greinke, as much as I like him, is getting overpaid. The fact is, rarely do the big deal, long-term contracts work out. With the exception of Braun, the Brewers have pretty much limited themselves to 4-year deals, and those haven't even worked out (Suppan, Hall). Each team has to dabble in free agency, but the big money should be in drafting and developing players, particularly pitching. Hopefully we are entering a different era with the likes of Peralta, Thornburg, Jungmann, etc. The reason the Brewers were so bad for so long was not the financial disparities in MLB. It was because for about a 20-year period they developed three starting pitchers (Cal Eldred, Ben Sheets and Yo).

Badger you're partly correct. The Brewers didn't develop much, but they also couldn't afford to go out and get a couple of FAs to lead the staff either. They concentrated on position players far too much. However many other clubs who drafted pitchers early and often also saw little production from their early picks. Low revenue clubs have to draft near perfectly every year or they cannot compete for long. Because so few draft choices really pan out to be stars, it's much easier for high payroll type clubs to buy what they need to stay competitive.

You have to spend the money intelligently, though. The Tigers will be regretting Prince's contract after about Year 4. The Astros ultimately regretted the Lee contract, just like the Reds did with Cordero. Spending money on free agency does not necessarily result in wins. And for a team that doesn't exactly have a great track record with free agent signings (Suppan, Wolf), it gets a little tiring listening to Brewers fans complain about the economics of the game, when the inability to draft and develop pitching is the primary reason the team was so bad for so long. And this is coming from a Brewers fan.

True, you have to spend intelligently but at the same time if the Brewers had the payroll of the Dodgers they could have signed Fielder, Grienke, and Sabathia and still have more payroll flexibility than they have now. Sure, you can argue that the Brewers need to be intelligent but it's still not an even playing field, the teams with big payrolls hire smart people, too.

It really is kind of depressing reading this as a Brewers fan. At least they have an owner interested in trying to compete and not just cashing in on revenue sharing checks but still, even if they're smarter than every other team, they're going to struggle to compete consistently.

How sad would it be to be a Packers fan and know that they have Rodgers locked up (like the Brewers have with Braun) but that Matthews, Jennings, Woodson, Williams, etc. were all going to walk and get paid way more elsewhere and there was nothing the Packers could do about it but watch the Cowboys, Redskins, Giants, etc. blow away any offer they made. I get that it's a different league and different situation but I can't see how the way things are going is a good thing for MLB.

The revenue disparity situation obviously gives significant advantages to the big market teams. But the 162 game season can sometimes even things out. All the money in the world didn't help the Yankees or Dodgers or Marlins last year. If your long term big money signings slump or get hurt, or the team chemistry is bad, or a lower salaried team just meshes and plays better, some smaller market teams still can have a shot. Of course the big money teams can revamp/rebuild instantly if they fail. Small market teams don't have that luxury.

Come on Tom. While Melvin deserves credit for finally recognizing that other teams have used him as a sap to rob of young prospects in exchange for players approaching free agency, he has only to look at Tampa Bay to learn how a small market team can thrive. Their GM Friedman knows how to draft and then reload by trading his players approaching FA for even better young prospects. It's not about TV money, it's about talent assessment.

I agree also, but you must remember with all the high school and early college signings, the drafted players elect to stay in school rather than sign with a lesser market team. So, the drafting of these players makes the process that much more difficult for the smaller market teams as these players know where the money is.

I give the Brewers credit for trying to win. They took some chances and they made the playoffs. Right now I think it's important for them to draft a develop well. If you get a good farm system going you can trade and or keep good players. That is the way it's going to have to be for a lot of teams going forward. I will say if you look at the last 5 teams to win a WS not a ton of homegrown position players on those teams.

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